


Bandoleros

by thebeastinsideusall, WinterReadingerDixon67



Series: Bucky Barnes Fics [7]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Fast and the Furious Series, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bucky’s hot af, Cars, Cute, Drugs, F/M, Fast and Furious inspired, Fun, Models, Music, how do you tag shit, mechanical jargon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-28
Updated: 2018-08-14
Packaged: 2018-11-20 16:26:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 14,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11339118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebeastinsideusall/pseuds/thebeastinsideusall, https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinterReadingerDixon67/pseuds/WinterReadingerDixon67
Summary: The team knew they had the muscle and the firepower to get the job done. They were the Avengers, they had every resource they needed. Except they didn’t. They needed a way to get out of sticky situations fast, meaning they needed cars. What they needed were drivers, the best damn drivers they could get their hands on.How hard could that be? All they needed to do was integrate themselves into a world none of them knew actually existed...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have no clue where this is going but there's hardly any car themed stories out there and I'm sick of looking. So I'm writing my own. With the help of WinterReadingerDixon67 of course!!

Intro

 

They needed help. Not in the sense that they needed it for firepower, they already had the best of enhanced and Demi gods and assassins and spies. 

 

What they didn't have were competent drivers to get them away and away quick from missions. The armored vans and trucks helped, but were hard to maneuver over terrain other than gravel or pavement. Most of the shield agents made into drivers couldn't even parallel park. Let alone get through a crowded city without getting caught by local police or the bad guys. 

 

The needed drivers. Ones who knew what they were doing. How to handle all types of vehicles and could work great under pressure. Easy as pie, right?

 

Steve scrubbed a hand over his face. Eyes burning and tired from hours of watching videos of local, professional and stunt drivers. None of them coming up to the task of the race they had set up. None of them getting clean corners or avoiding sudden obstacles. Everyone either clipping their side and flipping or simply not understanding their vehicle enough to get through the course. He was starting to think this was virtually impossible. 

 

"Any luck?" Clint asked as he sat in the chair besides Steve, popping a piece of pop tart into his mouth. "Shit." He watched as the newest video showed a car flip over just from barely touching a fire hydrant. 

 

"This is impossible." Steve stopped the video and rubs his fingers at his eyes trying to will the tiredness from them. 

 

"Nah, you're just looking in the wrong spot." Clint reached for the mouse to the computer and started clicking and typing into YouTube. 

 

Suddenly a video started playing. Two older style muscle cars were boxing in an armored money truck. Pushing it back and forcing it over the raised median in the middle of the crowded highway. Easily dodging oncoming cars and keeping up with the other. In tandem, the car on the right sped up to clip the trucks front drivers side. While the one on the left slowed to push at the back-passenger side. 

 

Collectively they pushed the truck into a spin, avoided the damage as the truck went rolling. The back doors opened in the fray and the heavy sacks of cash were thrown out, bills flying everywhere. The rolled truck was soon surrounded by the poorer people that had been bystanders. People grabbing cash and speaking out in Spanish to praise the drivers. 

 

"Is this real?" Steve raised an eyebrow. This was something from a movie or a stunt. 

 

"Nope." Clint popped more pop tart into his mouth as he watched the video play again in awe and respect. "That was five years ago in Mexico. The locals were in uproar because of higher taxes every year. These guys, whoever they are, did that to six different trucks. Promised to keep doing it if the government didn't stop the taxes."

 

"So, they did?" Clint nodded at Steve. And pointed to the screen where he's paused it. The two cars melding into the highway off in the distance. Swerving like snakes through the traffic at speeds no normal driver would even try. No plates. Tinted windows. Nothing.

 

"Nobody knows who they were. Never saw the cars again." He tapped at the screen. "Those are the people you need to look for Cap."

 

Steve sighed and stared at the screen, replaying the video once more. "How do you even start to look for them?"

 

"My guess? Try long histories of street racing, chop shops and stuff like that. They're out there somewhere."


	2. Chapter 2

1

 

He's talked it over with them all. From Thor who's now usually gone to Asgard, all the way to the twins where Pietro is still trying to recover from the massive amount of gunshot wounds he survived. They're all in agreement, they need the help. 

 

There's only one problem. He's got no idea where to start. No clue as where to look to find these people. He's not used to getting into the underbelly of things like this. Give him Nazis and Hydra, he can handle that easily. This was a new game. 

 

He's figured out that street racing is actually a thing, not something just seen in movies. There's hundreds of thousands of dollars pushed around just on a single night. For cars. Like it was just paper. Which it was in a way but... He can't wrap his mind around it to be honest. 

 

"Hey, you're thinking really loud." Nat comes up to Steve as he looks out over the city of New York. His shoulders tense and arms crossed as he watches the traffic stories below them. 

 

"Is it that obvious?" He smirks gently and turns to glance at the redhead beside him. 

 

"You're easy to read Rogers." She leans her hands on the railing, gentle breeze ruffling the red locks around her chin. "Still having trouble?"

 

"Yeah… " 

 

"Well you know the best way to infiltrate a secret organization, right?" She grins and looks over to him, sly little smile on her face. 

 

"And what's that Nat?" He starts to understand her meaning. 

 

"Play the part and the organization comes to you."

 

Steve knew he needed to get people on the inside, but not just any people, someone on the team. He headed back inside, thinking it was a good time to have a talk with Sam and Bucky


	3. Chapter 3

2

Sam's sitting on the couch with a shit eating happy grin on his face and his hands clasped together like he's the mastermind of a great plan. Steve, Clint, Natasha and Bucky all sitting around him in the lounge. 

"So you'll do it then?" Steve asks his friend and gets a scoff in response.

"Will I do it? Hell yes, I'll do it. Spending all night every night around cars and hot women? Hell yes." His face splitting in an ecstatic grin as he rubs his hands together. 

Steve nods and feels a bit relieved he won't have to do this himself. He really doesn't feel comfortable in undercover work. That it's virtually impossible for him to go unnoticed. His face was everywhere. 

Bucky nods his agreement with a small smile tugging onto his lips. Steve knows he's been working on a car in his free time, clearing his thoughts and learning as he goes. This is his chance to take it or for a spin and to not have Steve hanging over his shoulder while undercover. 

"Sure you can handle it?" He's been fine for forever now. No triggers or memories, nothing phases him out of himself. Bucky nods to Steve once more. 

"I'll be fine, I'm with Sam." Bucky says as Sam slaps Steve on the back, "Stop mother-henning him Cap, we're gonna have loads of fun." Steve glanced between the two of them, wondering if he's making the right choice in sending in these two. But hey, at least it's not Clint.


	4. Chapter 4

3

 

Dominican Republic

 

The heat was fucking too much. You couldn't see but through a haze of waves coming up from the cracked and barely patched up asphalt. The highway dead during the day but for the lonely trucker who was too slow and had to keep going instead of taking a rest. 

 

And there was one. A gas truck carrying five tanks window down the pavement in solitude. The driver tired and covered in sweat. No amount of air conditioning can compete with the rage of heat coming from the sun at high noon. 

 

All by his lonesome. Until the small roar of engines was heard over the sound of the tanker's own. An old black Buick grand national went to pass the truck, got in front and stayed a few lengths ahead. Stupid kids. 

 

Unbeknownst to the truck driver, he's already lost two of those five tanks of gas. An orange 1967 Chevrolet truck pulling them out of sight now miles back. The driver and pass ever munching on popcorn as the drive away with gold. 

 

Tinkling laugher hidden in the roar of engines and raging winds. A girl with dark brown hair, a flash of greenish blue dyed on the ends of her ponytail. Hazel eyes flashed with amusement as the second truck spun around and hooked to the tanks. 

 

She climbed and them stumbled, her hands catching her before she fell. The tanker driver had spotted her or the truck she doesn't know. What she did know was that they were swerving wildly and the downgrade was coming up fast, they needed to move.

 

She's lost her hammer in the stumble, still clutching to the ladder at the back of the tank. Loud Spanish was heard as the driver of the Buick tried to get the truck to unhook, it wasn't working. 

 

"Unhook you idiots! Unhook!"

 

"That's what I'm trying to do!!!" They were stuck and couldn't unlatch themselves. The downgrade was just a half mile away. 

 

"Dammit!" The Buick sped up, a ringed hand reaching out toward the girl on the back of the tank. "Irene! Spray that latch!"

 

"I don't have a hammer!" She yells over the booming noises around them. 

 

"Just do it!!" Irene takes a half shakes breath and kneels down, the nitrogen spray coming out and freezing the thick steel hook and latch on the tanks. 

 

The Buick turned around without losing any speed, whipped over and threw its drivers back fender I to the edge of the tanker. The latch broke. 

 

The black 1989 black Chevrolet hit its brakes, and takes off over the top of the downgrade and out of sight. Leaving Irene on the back of the tanker and the driver of the Buick. 

 

The car gets closer, still driving backwards and speeding up as the downgrade gets steeper and steeper. The hand came back out. "Jump"

 

"I can't reach!" Irene doesn't have the leverage to jump or the strength to hold on much longer.

 

"Mother...fuck!" The Buick whips around again, passenger window rolled down and closer then before. "Jump!!"

 

And she does, head first into the open window and gasps panting trying to sit up and get her feet out of the window. Only to felt the blast of immense heat from behind. The last of the two tanks broke off, and was rolling on fire toward them. The edges catching and shredding the metal of the tanks as it rolled. 

 

"Dom..." Irene leans back in her seat, the Buick was turned straight toward the rolling tank. The truck and reminding tank flipped and blocking their exit. 

 

Ringed hands gripped the wheel and the stick shift, flexing and gripping. Foot hard on the gas. Tank was getting closer. 

 

"Dom." Irene gripped her hand rest on the door, eyes fixed on the fiery tank rolling towards them. "Dom!"

 

She throws it out of neutral, shifts straight to second and turns just enough to be a bit sideways. The tank rolls over them and keeps going to the rolled tanker down at the start of the turn. The explosion just touched them as the Buick sped faster up the steep grade. 

 

"Fuckin pyscho Dom!" Irene chided but laughed a tiny bit as the air tried to cool her sweat slick skin. Blue styled hair sticking to her neck and shoulder. 

 

"But did you die? No." Grinned Dominika as Irene rolled her eyes at her friend. "Come on, we got gold to deliver."


	5. Chapter 5

4

Tony was kind of an ass. Bucky and Sam thought as they worked tirelessly on their cars in the basement garage of the tower. The billionaire provided the parts, the tools, everything they would need. But refused to help or even answer questions. 

So the boys were on their own. Now they weren't incompetent. Sam had always loves engines and cars while Bucky poured over books and magazines for a few years now. It didn't matter. They were nearly done now. Just the last touches. Paint, brakes, detailing. Nearly complete. 

 

Sam chose something newer, that fit his frame and style. A 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder. It had a body mod, a wing and a hell of an engine. He called it the Sparrow, with its blue and silver details, the feathers painstakingly hand painted onto the body above the exhaust. The name fit. 

 

Now Bucky. Bucky liked heavy muscle. He liked ‘em mean and lean and ready to destroy. He liked the feel of so much power that the frame shook and the steering wheel vibrated. So he went muscle and he went heavy. He found an Australian released Mustang cobra. With a Boss 302. It shook and rumbled the ground it drove on. He painted it a deep flat black, with a detail for himself. A red five pointed star on the trunk lid. 

 

Bucky wiped his grease stained hands on a shop towel. Leaned his hips back into the workbench a few feet from Sam as they both looked at their cars. Sam handed Bucky a bottle of beer. 

 

"Ready for this man?" Bucky pops the cap off with a tiny flick of his metal fingers taking a long drink. 

 

"I can handle it if that's what you're asking." 

 

"Nah man, gon' be a long way from home. L.A is a bit different than New York tin man." Sam snarked gently, pushing at Bucky like he always did. 

 

"I'll be fine birdbrain." Bucky chugged the last of the beer and tossed it toward the trash as he turned and headed to the elevator. "Come on dick, we got packin’ to do."

 

Sam chuckled softly into the now empty garage. Looking over the cars and thinking about what they were about to do. Tony and Steve would drop Sam, Bucky and Natasha outside L.A. Nat would go on her own, doing recon and the men would travel into the city and do their best to find racers. And where you found racers, you found drivers. If the boys were lucky, they were bound to find good racers. But they didn’t just want good racers, they wanted the best of the best.

 

This was going to be interesting.


	6. Chapter 6

5

 

Rio was absolutely gorgeous. Full of life and music and people so diverse. Every night was a party, every day a get together between family, friends, loved ones. You worked just enough to live and you lived hard. The cars were fast and women wild. 

 

Revving engines sounding alongside the voices of rappers and booming basses from different systems. People crowded around arms and danced. Beers flowed freely and trash talk sounded until a challenge was made. A face won and the losers given a beer to cool his sore pride. 

 

Irene walked around the dancers and car owners. Smiling at the antics of some of them. She loved Rio, Rio was something she hadn't seen yet. Her smile faded as she saw Dom's car sat in its spot. But without its driver. A bubble around the beast, as if people were too fearful to get too close. 

 

She looked the crowd and found Niki near her mustang fastback. Chatting up the small crowd of men surrounded her barely clad self, beer in hand. As hazel locked onto brown Biko nodded toward the beach. Irene nodded her thanks and started to trek down the sandy slope to the roaring foamy waves. 

 

Nika was sitting on a rock facing the ocean and waves, breeze blowing back the blonde hair in her ponytail. 

 

"There she is." Irene sat beside her friend and handed the blonde a beer. They sat in silence for a few moments, taking in the waves and the music behind them. Just content having a chance to relax.

 

"What's on your mind boss." Irene asks softly taking a swig of her beer. Years spent alongside the blonde had made Irene able to read subtle tells. 

Dominika was a twenty five year old woman who had so many miles under her cars it was a wonder the girl was still standing tall like she always did. She had a strength to her that drew people in. And a kindness in her heart to help those who needed it. It's how Irene met the 'Boss', as they all called Dominika. Their history was long and filled with years of trust and loyalty. They were family. 

 

"Thinkin it's time to go home." The older blonde pointed out to the ocean. Irene have a small nod, sipped her cold beer and Laurene's to the party behind them. Home meant L.A and a part of Dom's past she didn't need to face if they could help it. A home that was no longer standing and some people who claimed to be family but ruined their lives. 

 

"You ready to face what might be there?" She'd go wherever Dom went. Anywhere and anytime in whatever way. Same as Niki and Leon. They'd follow this woman till the end of the earth and back. 

 

"Hell no." She takes a drink and blue eyes glow from the light of the moon. "But I miss home and my streets." She looks over to Irene and smiles. "Pack your bags sister, we're goin home."


	7. Chapter 7

6

 

Bucky looked through the shaded lenses of his sunglasses over the city before them. He'd never been to L.A before and he didn't exactly expect this level of heat from a city so close to the ocean. He's thankful now he chopped every inch of his hair off. Sporting the style he had as a young man before the war, Bucky realized quickly that 'vintage' was in. 

 

He now looked over the bustling city of Los Angeles. Hips leaning against his car after it was unloaded from the covered semi trailer after Sam's. The trunks had their possessions inside and that's all they would need along with their phones. They'd be alone in this for awhile.

 

Steve stood beside Bucky and watched the traffic down below. "I'm not gonna ask if you can do this. I know you can." Bucky glanced to his right to raise an eyebrow. Steve hadn't exactly been trusting of Bucky and it was grating on his and everyone's nerves to let Bucky make his own choices. 

 

"We'll be fine." Bucky pushed off the car and held his hand out to Steve. 

 

"I know you will, but be careful anyways." They shook hands and bro hugged before Steve moved to Sam and did the same. 

 

"Oh. And don't kill each other!" He chuckled as both Sam and Bucky grinned darkly at each other. 

 

"No promises Cap. We'll be in touch." With that Sam and Bucky got into their cars. Engines roared to life and the both of them went into the fray of the city below in a cloud of low dust.

 

"Watch over them?" Steve asks as Natasha slips onto her crotch rocket, helmet in her hands and sat stop the gas tank. 

 

"Steve, they're grown men. They'll be fine." She gives a wink and puts her helmet on, bike snarling awake and she's gone as well in a cloud of dust and spray of gravel and dirt. 

 

Steve looked skyward and sighed out. "Lord please keep them safe and to not kill the other." Already second guessing himself if he made the right choice.


	8. Chapter 8

7

 

In all honesty it didn't take long to get back to the states with half a dozen cars and four people in an uncharted private plane. Really, when you have the money, anything is possible. And they had money. 

 

Nika had found a rental place. A garage with a small apartment complex attached as the upper floors. It wasn't the ritz, it wasn't a lot. But it was perfect for them, for their unique family. It held all their cars, the tools that would be arriving in the mail in the next few days, and anything else they needed. 

 

And the view wasn't too bad either. Big glass windows staring out into the ocean with only a highway and beach between them. That's where she was now, watching the sun sink lower over the waves. The cars passing by and the lights of the city start to come alive in preparation for the night life. 

 

Irene by her side like always, her closest and oldest friend. The half Ukrainian woman as loyal as a soldier and more trustworthy than any man could ever be.

 

"Sean and Niki want to go out tonight. See what's become of the circuit." Her voice always held that slight accent that set Irene apart from Americans. 

 

"You know it'll be just as wild as when we left." Nika's face didn't waver its state of the ocean. 

 

"We will not know until we see for ourselves." Irene knew why Dom didn't want to go out there just yet. The people in their world don't forget, try as they might. 

 

"Not tonight. Go have fun." And that was a final word as Nika turned and headed down the open grated steps to the garage. 

 

Irene watched her blonde head vanish down the steps, then looked back out the large windows. Her friend was not the kind to stray away from things from fear, but instead be calculating and smart. 

 

She was waiting. Waiting to see how this city that used to be her kingdom, will accept her back with open arms. Or push her back out of the states to find a new kingdom. Irene stood straight and left the building, she would see for herself what's happened since they'd been gone. 

 

Niki and Sean stood from their cars, gave a weathered glance back to the garage and Irene shook her head. They understood, years spent with the blue-eyed blonde came with knowledge of how her mind worked. They would find out how much the city has changed in five years. It was time for the city to know that they were home.


	9. Chapter 9

8

 

Sam and Bucky decided to split up. One taking the west side of the city and the other the east side. It was nearing dusk and they had been driving for a while now and hadn't seen more than a few ricers and corvettes. Nothing that screamed, power.

 

So Bucky decided to take a break, let his car cool down and get some gas. There was a small gas station attached to a deli, perfect. Car parked and locked, shades on, he made his way inside the deli for a snack and to call Sam for an update.

 

"Hey man." Sam answered fairly quickly, the purr of Sam's car and the wind whipping told Bucky the top was down.

 

"Anything yet?" James asks between bites of a turkey club. Eyes watching the road behind his shades.

 

"Couple Hondas but nothing worth following." So Sam was having just as much luck as he was, good.

 

"Maybe it's too early yet." He pops the top off his red bull.

 

"Nah, big shots like to show off. We're just not seeing them yet." And it's like someone heard Sam and himself talking. Just outside the gas station a trio of cars pulls up. Engines roaring and the second the light turns green, tires screeching.

 

"Mother fuck.." James grabbed the rest of his sandwich and jogged to his car.

 

"What?" Sam's trying to gain his attention from the other end of the line as Bucky shifts gears and tries to follow the obvious racers.

 

"Think I found some." Was all he said before tossing his phone down into the wide seat as he tries not to hit other cars.

 

They're fast, winding around traffic, avoiding obstacles and pedestrians. Bucky's got a lot of training under his belt, the ability to drive nearly anything on any terrain part of that. But there's a difference in driving to a goal, and driving just to drive. Those instincts aren't strong like they should be. He was taught how to avoid problems when they come while driving, not to anticipate and correct within a half second. He's nearly clipped four cars already.

 

His phones ringing in the seat but he ignores it to focus fully on the road around him and to not lose sight of those cars. He knows he's on the right track, no stock engine sounds like that and can move so fast so quickly. The three vehicles traversing through intersections with an ease he didn't know could exist inside a heavy metal machine.

 

Heart pounding with adrenaline, metal arm ticking. Bucky finally follows them a block away where they pull into a seemingly abandoned factory lot. And the moment he turns the corner, it's a shock enough to make him hit the brakes.

 

There's people everywhere. Almost in the hundreds he'd wager. Mulling about, dancing, drinking. Cars and trucks and motorbikes in the spaces between groups. Music blasting and engines warring.

 

The crowd splits easily to let him through. Like its instinctual to make way for cars and drivers, point them to empty slots to park. He reaches over and calls Sam, eyes never wavering behind his shades. He tells Sam the address, what to expect. And Bucky watches the crowd as he opens the door and steps out.

* * *

 

Here's Bucky in his shades: 


	10. Chapter 10

9

 

It was indescribable. This new world Bucky had no idea of really existed and wasn't made up. Cars, women, music, power, money. Everything flowed together here. He couldn't hide the small grin behind his shades as he watched beautiful women look over cars, drivers rev engines and issue challenges, heavy thumping of bass surrounding all. Wads of cash flowing to winners from losers, bets lost and won. He's barely been here a half hour and he's counted at least twenty thousand dollars. And the races hadn't seemed to really start yet. 

 

Sam pulled up besides Bucky's mustang. Top up on the car and engines cut off as Sam stepped out of the Spyder. He whistled low and bit at his knuckles, groaning softly as a trio of women in far too small clothes strutted past. 

 

"Damn, look at all this potential." He claps his hands together and grins as he sees Bucky roll his eyes from behind shades. 

 

"We're here on a mission, not for whores." Sam not so subtly smacked James on the back of the head and earned a growl from the super soldier. 

 

"Watch your mouth man. One bad word about you and the whole thing will go sideways real fucking quick." Sam's still smiling and winking at beautiful women as they pass. He leans back against Bucky's car and crosses his arms as eyes watch everything. 

 

"Do you even realize how many of those guys are packing heat right now?" In truth he hadn't, too focused on the cars to notice. He scolded himself and started to watch, in a few moments the numbers were in the dozens and counting. Even some girls had small pistols hidden away in tight outfits somehow. 

 

"Don't go loco man. We just got here..." Sam's voice trails off as the crowd parts out of nowhere. Stumbling feet and hushed whispers turn into yells and shouts, whoops and hollers. Fists pumping in air a trio of cars makes their way down the wide pavement made for them. 

 

"Those are the ones I followed here." Bucky whispers to Sam as they watch the show in front of them. The cars stopped dead on the middle of the walkway instead of parking like everyone else. Soon the crowd swarmed them and nothing could be seen for several seconds until the sudden roar of an engine scolded everyone back a few yards. Like a lion roaring into a pack of hyenas. 

 

Silent they watched as the doors opened, two women drivers, one male. All being slapped on the back, talked to by dozens of people and smiled goofily through the whole thing. It was a spectacle like a war veteran had come home back to their small town, but ten times the hype and size. 

 

"Who's that?" And Bucky shouldn't have opened his mouth. Several heads turned near them and exclamations of shock rippled through the nearest people. 

 

"Eh?! You don't know them?" A Spanish man came forward. A bit heavy and short, wearing a baseball tee a bit too big. Bucky had noticed him being the fence, handling the money for the races and bets. 

 

He comes closer and points to the woman with hazel hair and bright green blue tips. To the dark haired beauty with red painted nails and to the tall bill of a man between them both. "Those the best racers anyone's ever seen."

 

"The best?" Bucky asked, raises an eyebrow from under the shades as he watches the crowd start to thin only slightly and the trio melt into the crowd. 

 

"Man, you aren't from around here huh?" He offers his hand and Sam takes it while Bucky still watches after the trio. Losing them in the crowd. "Names Hector."

 

"Sam, James." Sam offers as introductions. "No, we just moved here."

 

"These your rides?" Hectors scanning over them with a critical eye. "Nice."

 

"Any way we could race them?" Sam asks with a chin jerk toward the crowd, Hector knew who they were asking about. 

 

He started laughing and clutching his side. "You new hombre. Ain't no way you can even compare." Sam and Bucky bristled a bit at the comment. 

 

"You make your way up the ladder man. Them? They won't even glance your way, no matter how nice your car." He kept chuckling and shaking his head. 

 

"Then start us out, we want to race them." Bucky speaks and his voice is harder than it should have been. Hector sobered slightly and sized up Bucky and Sam. Not for their strength but looking for something else. 

 

"I can find you a race, but be careful newbies. Some of these racers? They race for pinks." He laid his hand on Sam's car for a second. "Don't lose your car, and you might get their attention. The ones you want to race? Don't have respect for guys who can't easily keep their rides


	11. Chapter 11

10

 

The night came and went in a blur of fast races, smiling women and money thrown around like confetti. Sam and Bucky won their races, to that they won't lie. Did they maybe cheat? Maybe take a turn too wide and cause a car to careen out of the road? Maybe. But the races were won and money earned, not like they needed it. 

 

Yet they weren't any closer to their goal. Pockets full of wadded up and rolled cash. They watched as the trio left for the night, well morning. Not a single race between the three of them. Vanishing into the streets and melding into traffic. 

 

Sam and Bucky met eyes over the tops of their cars. Shades now gone as the night wore on and a weary look on their face from staying up into the early morning hours. 

 

"Let's head back." Sam spoke and Bucky nodded, climbing into his car and leaving the crowd that was still raging and partying. 

 

Instead of following Sam back to their new apartment, Bucky went in search of a diner. He was starving and needed a little bit of time away from the dark skinned male. Sometimes he could only take so much of Sam and his puns. 

 

The roar of his engine sounded as he found a small diner tucked away. Beside it the lights were off on a small cafe grocery store, Toretto's. The diner had an open sign on in the window, the old neon flicked a little bit but otherwise stayed lit. Inside was clean, well-worn seating and a freshly mopped floor. But the grill was on and the sizzle of grease could be heard. 

 

His stomach gave a small rumble at the smell of burgers and fries, damn he's hungry. There's a couple of late nighters or early risers at the bar, but otherwise it's empty. So, he takes a seat and sighs as he sinks a bit into the creaky vinyl, corner of his eye keeping a look out on his car and the street outside. 

 

Three loaded double cheeseburgers, fries and a slice of blueberry pie later, he's full and headed back to his car. Keys in his hand and palm on the top of the open door. The screeching of tires and thundering roar of an engine make him pause. 

 

There's a Dodge Charger spinning around the roundabout in front of the diner. Scent of burnt rubber surrounding him as he stared at the car. The beast it was stopped, nose to nose with Bucky's mustang. The engine purring, growling, waiting, challenging. 

 

Bucky slowly sank into the driver’s seat, door closing. The put put put of the other cars engine showing the power held back. He turned the key, the mustang coming to life beneath him. Booted foot to tapping the gas pedal, revving it up and over. 

 

Several seconds pass and the dodge suddenly backs up, spinning out and taking off down the street. Bucky hits the gas and follows. His every instinct telling him this was who he needed to find. He just hoped he didn’t lose sight of them this time.


	12. Chapter 12

11

Weaving back and forth through the nearly empty streets he tried to keep up with the heavy bodied sleek car. It would slow, let him catch up and then speed up again. And though Bucky could in fact keep up, he wasn't familiar with the streets yet, but the other driver seemed to realize that. 

Within minutes whoever it was had lead Bucky out towards the beach way. The highway that flowed along the cliffs and shoals of the ocean. A long patch of asphalt that wasn't traveled this late. 

The dodge took the left lane and let Bucky pull up beside. He rolled his window down but the other car didn't reciprocate. The moments passed quickly and the car revved it's engine twice, Bucky repeated it. 

The stop light they were at still held a red light, but the seconds were ticking down fast for it to change green. His hands gripped the wheel and he reached down to palm the shifter, ready. 

The light went green. Tires squealed, rubber burned and thousands of pounds of metal went off like rockets down the road. 

Bucky knew his car, he knew it had power and strength and how to push it. But this challenger.... It was barely revving over maybe four rpm's. It was toying with him. And that only served to make him aggravated. His boots punched the clutch and his metal hand threatened to crush his steering wheel. He wasn't going to lose. 

The road curved with the cliffs and beaches, rolling with the land. Fast as lighting Bucky drove alongside the other car. Pushing and pushing. Their lights flashed twice, signaling the traffic light up ahead was the finish. He pushed harder. 

And ... He lost. 

A half car length. That's all it had been. Both of them pushing to the limits at the very end. 

The challenger pulled over, engine calming. Bucky didn't get out of his car. This driver, this racer. Didn't want to be known. They stared at each other for a couple minutes. The car was put into drive and calmly drove away. Leaving Bucky alone as the early morning sun started to peek out over the ocean waves.


	13. Chapter 13

12

“And they just... left? Didn’t even ask for money or try to take your car?” Sam asked over a plateful of food and his breakfast half chewed in his mouth. When Bucky had gotten back last night Sam had been sleeping so heavily the former assassin wondered if the veteran would wake for even a bomb. He’d waited until the morning as they went to get breakfast to tell Sam about the race and the mysterious racer he’d encountered. 

“Telling ya man, that’s who we need to find. The skill was unparalleled, never seen anything like it.” Bucky chugged half his ice tea while he scarfed down the bacon and eggs in front of him. His thoughts on the sleek car and how the engine had rumbled like a purring panther. He wanted to meet them, whoever they are. 

“Should ask Hector when we see him next, seems to know who everyone is and which cars are who’s.” Bucky nods and slips the shades back onto his face, still not used to his hair being so short again, as they stood to leave the diner. The sun was shining and it was hot. 

“Beach until sundown?” Sam grinned and slid into his convertible while Bucky easily leapt into the passenger seat. They had time to kill before they ventured back into the nightlife.

——

A week later. Sam and Bucky got their first glance at a person who ruled everything that had an engine. Another crowded Friday night. Cars, girls, money, all of it. Hector had given them the heads up, best of the best was coining down for the races. Be ready, he was going to pint their way for the race.

The trio from before were there, pulling in and the crowd moves away from them. But they’re following the sleek Challenger from Bucky’s late night race. He grabs Sam’s shoulder to jerk the man’s chin in the direction of the dark monster as it parked in a line with the three others. It at the head of the pack. 

“That’s the car?” Bucky nods and stretches his neck to look over the gushing crowd. The response is different then when the first three showed up a week prior. Now it was as if the entire mass was waiting, baited breath. 

The other three drivers hopped out of their cars, the one woman with bright blue green tipped hair pushed back her sunglasses and shouted at Spanish as a young girl touched her car. The crowd backed off even more. Hector came forward, rubbing his hands together with a sly grin on his lips. The door opened. 

Long blonde hair pulled back behind sunglasses, toned lean legs in cropped jean shorts. The crowd was silent for a moment and hector opened his arms wide, addressing them all. 

“My friends!” He shouts and everyone looks at him and the woman, her trio of followers at her back like a rock solid wall. 

“My friends.... Nika, our princess of the quarter mile... is home!” And it’s like a volcano erupts. Screams and shouts, dozens of engines revved high. 

Nika, her hand raises and the crowd stops. Her eyes look over the masses, everyone waiting for her and then her eyes land on the gleaming color of Bucky’s car. Her raised hand slowly lowers until she’s pointing at him alone and the crowd parts like the Red Sea. 

“Two mile mark, two thousand entry, winner takes all the cash.” More rounds of screaming as people crowd her for entry, money waved in her face and Hector’s. “Four runners, I need two more.” Her hand lowers but her gaze stays right there behind her glasses.

Bucky sits in shock at being called out but Sam is pushing him into his car as the people part to let him toward the mock line beside the Dodge he’d raced the other night. His shades hiding the hint of nervousness in his gaze as the woman, Nika, comes up to his rolled down window. Her mass of hair hanging to the shoulder and she leans into the window. 

“You’re new around here aren’t you? Follow me after the races tonight, if you can finish less then a half length behind me.” She winks, her voice accented with Spanish or Dominican his not sure. 

But then she’s gone and waiting on a third racer. She doesn’t need to wait long, as Sam revved his engine and nearly runs over a few people trying to get to the starting line. 

When the race starts, he falls behind out of sheer nervousness. Sam taps his bumper with the nose of his own car, scratches the paint and he knows Sam is screaming at him to get the fuck on. So he goes. 

The Dodge update front is playing with the other cars, weaving around them like it’s child’s play. And it is for them, racing is either something you learn, or something you’re born with. And this girl, her friends. They were born with it. 

Sam pushes too hard, he’s third, then second. Punches his Nos, but he’s too early on the draw and he pushes his engine too hard, there’s a pop. Fizzling and Sam’s left in the roadway, the hood steaming while the others are gone in a blink. Bucky doesn’t glance back, knowing Sam would be fine, his own focus on the cars around him and that finish line screaming at him to cross it. 

When he does, it’s a tire squealing, rubber burning and engine roaring stop as he slams his breaks. Coming nose to nose with the challenger, it does a two point turn so he can see into the drivers window as it lowers. Smiling white teeth glitter at him and she crooks her finger before the window rolls back up, Bucky goes to follow when a voice comes over the static of the radio. “Cops cops cops!!” A frenzy happens around him and Bucky is quick to not lose to Challenger in the crowds and out of the craziness as police cars and racers alike give chase. 

Red and blue lights flash and Bucky guns his engine down an alley, barely missing the edge of the brick building. Following the black Dodge is a new race all its own and Bucky is lucky his left hand can’t sweat as he sees the lights blur behind him. He loses the challenger for a half second, barely catching its tail lights fading into a parking garage around a corner. When they get halfway up, Nika throws a car tarp over her Dodge and is sliding into Bucky’s passenger seat. 

“Drive!”


	14. Chapter 14

13  
   
Once the red and blue lights faded and Bucky’s tires squeal onto a nearly empty street, does she finally let out a small breath that ends in a whoop of victory. “Damn.” She sighed, turned in the seat to face him, her eyes blatantly checking him out.   
   
“So James,” she ignored his narrowed eyes at her knowing his name, “nice car.” She leans her head back, tips her chin up and continued to praise his form as he shifts and speeds down an empty highway towards the beach.   
   
“Thanks.” His lips quirk into a smirk, watching in the corner of his eye as she gets herself comfy in the passenger seat.   
   
“Dominika.” She says lowly and he glances over at her before turning back to the road. She’d pronounced it totally different than how he’d imagined. (Doh-meh-neeka).   
   
“What brings you down here buster?” He again raises an eyebrow at the name. She only smirks wider and rolls down the window, pointed with a wave of her hand to a narrow side road that led to private residences on the beach front. “Go that way.”  
   
Heeding the instructions Bucky pulls up to what looks like a multi-car garage and an apartment above it. “Just passin’ through. Checking out the races.” She nods and hums, stepping from the car with care. As if she knew how hard someone worked to put it together and was respectful of that fact.   
   
“Nah man.” She grins, leaning her elbow on the top of the car as Bucky got out. Her brow easing as she realized how much taller he was now standing feet from her. “Hector been around a long time. He knows a newbie when he sees one, and he spied two a few weeks ago.” She waited for a response and he just shrugged.   
   
“Me and Sam we're just passin’ through.”   
   
“Sure kid, keep telling me that. I’ll get the reason outta ya.” She turned and motioned over her shoulder for him to follow into the now open garage doors. Music was blasting and a car soon pulled up behind his own. Bucky glances over and saw Sam stepping from the other car, the Camaro that belonged to the girl with blue tipped hair.  
   
“Hey man.” Sam clapped his back in greeting as they took on the neat rows of tool boxes, car lifts and parts all around the large garage. Bass thumped somewhere overhead, a party in its beginning stages.  
   
“The newbies on the block.” A string of what sounded like maybe Ukrainian was spoken between the blonde and her counterpart with turquoise tipped hair. Before they both chuckled. “Yo, tall dark and broody.”   
   
Bucky raised a brow but a smirk was on his lips. “How much for the car?” There’s mirth in her eyes, knowing he’s not giving that car up.  
   
“Ah, I see how it is. I rescue you from gettin’ cuffed and you want to repay me by buying my ride?” A series of chuckles comes from everyone, good-natured teasing.   
   
“Rescue?” The two women on either side of her snickers as they sip from cold bottles of Corona. “Me? I do not need rescuing, now your tall, dark and chocolate did, the way the crowd was eating him alive for wrecking his own car.” She grinned, the blue-tipped hair woman snickering and whispering in Ukrainian again.   
   
“I like you. You wanted to race with the big dogs first chance you could. Thing is, you actually had the skills to keep up with us.” She pulls a bottle out of the metal bucket full of ice, hands it out to Bucky neck first. He takes it after a moment and pops the top with a flick of his thumb, the cap rolls somewhere on the paved floor and he takes a long swig. His hips move to lean on the workbench with Sam nearby. “You, you shift like a grandmother late to church.” She giggles as Sam rolls his eyes and tries not to flush, Bucky can see it’s eating at him that he lost the race so quickly.   
   
“Told you your clutch wasn’t gonna hold up with how you shift, you probably broke every tooth on the wheel.” Bucky chided Sam and only got a glare in response.   
   
It’s an easy flow of small talk for a while. Nika divulges she told him to follow after the race because she was curious about who the new guys were. Plus, she wanted to race his car again. Smiling as the sun sank low on the horizon more people showed up, a full party came out of nowhere. Small groups dancing around the half-built cars in the garage. Sam had vanished somewhere down the beach with the women with blue-tipped hair, Irene. And he was following Nika up to the balcony that overlooked the beach and the sands.   
   
Spanish music flowed around them and he could see the way she moves her hips slightly. Downing the rest of his beer, Bucky gently took her hand and pulled her close when she didn’t pull away. Letting the beat flow over him he started to dance with her. “You didn’t actually need my help earlier, did you?” He asks her gently as they dance. Her eyes light up and there’s a barely there grin on her lips.   
   
“No, but you did anyway.” She slowly stops and so does he, both of them watching the other. “Circumstance made you the first one there. If you hadn’t? I would have been found.”  
   
“One of your friends would have grabbed you I figured.” She shook her head and gestures to the trio down below playing beer pong with Sam. Irene, another woman with darker hair, and a boy that looks barely out of high school.   
   
“Nah, I don’t got friends, I got family James.”


	15. Chapter 15

14  
   
Back at their shared apartment the next day the two men couldn’t come up with much of what had happened the night before. It was all a blur of action and small things that meshed together. They knew a few things for certain.   
   
Nika was not to be trifled with, her connections were endless and fr the whispers they’d heard the night before, it seemed like she had her fingers in anything illegal. She was a Robin Hood for the people and a damn good person. That was clear.   
   
Her right hand was Irene, a Ukrainian woman who spoke little English but understood it perfectly. The other two were Nikki and Sean. Nikki was a stray that they’d picked up and never dropped off. And Sean they’d met when he came back from Tokyo after the death of his friend.   
   
That’s all they’d got from the other night. Other than the fact Irene had it bad for Sam, as in teasing him relentlessly on his driving and whispers what they are assuming were insults in her native tongue that even Bucky didn’t understand. Ukrainian wasn’t a widely used language and the Soldier hadn’t any use for it.   
   
“What are you gonna do about your car?” Sam only groaned as he stared at its busted body in the parking space out the window.   
   
“There’s a garage down the road. Let’s get a quote.” Dressed for the day Bucky slid his sunglasses on and followed Sam down to his own car. The drive was short and he parked outside a little cafe attached to a garage.   
   
Looking up he noticed the old sign was half-assed painted over, Toretto’s. There was anew sign over it now. “Wasn’t the team we looked at led by a Toretto?” Sam nodded in answer.  
   
“Yeah, Coulson said not to even think about it because that whole team is off limits. They don’t want anything to do with government anymore. Said they’re retired.” They walked across the street and into the garage. Hoping to figure out how much it would cost to fix Sam’s car.  
   
—-  
   
“Four grand?!?!” Sam shouted as they pulled over by the boardwalk to get some lunch at a shrimp place. The garage had looked at the pictures of Sam’s broken car and gave him the dirtiest look at how it had ended up. The dark skinned man covered in tattoos gave him an estimate and even skimmed off some man hours because Sam was a racer. It was still a lot, and it would take them weeks to get to it, they were backed up.   
   
“Chill. We’ll figure it out.” Bucky dug into his fried shrimp and people watched as they ate. Without their own garage, they were going to have to rely on someone to fix Sam’s car.   
   
“Nika and Irene have a sweet garage...” Sam murmured from across the table and Bucky pulled his glasses down an inch to look over at Sam.   
   
“We just met them. I highly doubt they’d let you use a bay.” Sam kind of deflated and went back to eating, almost sulking as he did so. Bucky only rolled his eyes and continued to people watch. He was always alert, even when his mind wanted to relax. That’s how he heard the high pitched whistle of a modded import come down the highway and park a few spaces down from his own.  

Bucky rapped Sam’s shoulder, nonchalantly taking a drink from his coke, while Irene stepped from the car with the boy, Sean. It was a right-sided Nissan, with a tall wing, painted a deep red with racing stickers across some of the edges of the windows. The two appeared to be getting lunch like he and Sam were.   
   
“Yo,” Sean came up to them after ordering. Gripping Sam’s hand and giving a chest pull as the two greeted each other and then he tucked his chin in greeting to Bucky. Bucky tipped his coke back and nodded.   
   
“Find place to fix your car, yes?” Irene asked with her heavily accented voice, leaning her hip on the back of Bucky’s chair as she looked down at Sam. Leaning over to steal one of his fried shrimp while she and Sean waited on their order.  
   
“Not exactly,” Sam responded and explained that he’d rather fix the car himself but how he couldn’t do that with a lack of a garage and tools, and not knowing anyone they trusted in the city.   
   
Sean came back up, food in boxes set inside a plastic bag and drink carrier. “Follow, yes.” She tugged the edge of Bucky’s sleeve and the soldier rose an eyebrow over his sunglasses as she stood, expecting her to explain what she was saying and wanted.  
   
“You better just come, she won’t budge unless you listen.” Sean received a swift smack to the back of his head and a soft curse in Ukrainian as she pointed to his car. The teen rolled his eyes and murmured something back, dodging the next smack and went to sit in the Nissan.  
   
“Come, come.” Irene motioned for them to follow, both of them leaping into Bucky’s car as Sean took off and they trailed behind.  
   
Ten minutes later and a few traffic violations that no cop saw, they found themselves parking outside of the now familiar garage and apartment on the beach. Irene, flicking her turquoise tipped hair over her shoulder, crooked her finger over her shoulder as she went inside the open garage doors. Following, Bucky shoved his glasses up his nose and onto his forehead as the loud music was turned down and the sound of a wrench being tossed into a toolbox clanged through the space.   
   
“Blue says you need a garage?” Sam nodded. Nika had come from around the corner, a secluded bay that was tarped off different from the rest of the garage. Bucky watched her move languidly like she knew exactly where her feet were going and were perfectly balanced. Her arms were bare from the smudged grey tank top she was wearing. Her tanned skin covered in oil and grease spots. The bicep of her arm had a tattoo of what seemed to be a wrench.   
   
“I don’t mind renting out the space. Any tools missing though and I’ll hunt you down.” She smirked when Sam started to thank her profusely. Dude had been worried.   
   
“Yo Sean! Hook up the trailer and go get busters busted import.” She called over her shoulder, Sean groaned with a mouth full of food but did as asked. Grumbling about nothing wrong with imports. Carrying his box of shrimp with him as he motioned for Sam to follow.   
   
Nika crosses her arms and stood across from Bucky who mirrors her position. She stood more than a foot shorter than him, thick arms and thighs showed the ridges muscle under her soft looking skin. She was in no way a girly girl with the way she held herself. Bucky smirked, she rolled her eyes and cocked her chin for him to follow her. Irene jumping into the truck with Sam and Sean as they hooked up the trailer and left.   
   
“That was nice of you, letting him use your garage.” Nika looked up as she leans back under the open hood of her Dodge. The sleek body of it lifted a bit so she could more easily access the inside of the engine.   
   
“I don’t get a bad vibe from you guys. Hector said you guys are good people. I trust Hector's judgment.” Her eyes found his before she smirked softly and turned back to the engine she was tuning. “I wouldn’t mind making new friends.”  
   
Bucky felt something settle in his gut after she said that.  
 


	16. Chapter 16

15  
   
“Yeah, I’ve got visual.” Natasha murmurs into her headset that’s built into her bike helmet. It keeps her features utterly hidden and she likes how easy it is to blend into this city.   
   
The races fluctuate between barely enough to raise an eyebrow, to straight needing for someone to call SWAT to break it all up. Amateur racers rev engines, girls barely dressed dancing and clinging to thick arms. Bass thrumming from dozens of different systems, music in all different styles and languages. All centered around a group of less than ten at the middle of the masses, congregated between two old parking garages on the outskirts of town.  
   
The inside of her helmet zeroes in on the group. Running facial recognition on the four standing around Winter and Falcon. “I got shit on the blue haired chick. The boys got a record for illegal street racing, the file says he’s supposed to be in Tokyo with his father. The other chick has warrants for her arrest in several states, mostly her beating the shit out of men for cheating. Hmmm....” Tony’s voice sounded thoughtful.   
   
“What did you find?” Steve could be heard over the coms as Tony spoke.   
   
“Fuck. Coulson told us to stay away from these guys.” Tony flicked some tiny images over the edge of her screen and she knew it was mirrored in front of Steve. The team of legendary drivers that only worked with the DSS agent, Hobbs. A legend in his own right. They’d saved the world a couple times and weren’t even part of Shield. They were ghosts and wanted it kept that way. Coulson has asked them explicitly to leave these people alone.  
   
“What does this team have to do with this mission?” Steve spoke, asking while Natasha watched the blonde lean over and whisper something to Bucky.   
   
“She’s related to Toretto,” Stark growled out.  
   
“Related how?” Steve sighed, knowing nothing would never be easy.   
   
“Younger cousin.” Everyone collectively groaned as Natasha watched live, the blonde leaned against the hood of her car and surveyed all around her like it was her kingdom and this was a feast. 

Bucky smirked when the blonde looped her fingers into his belt and yanked him closer to her, the camera zoomed in as she sunk a rolled up wad of cash into his jeans pocket and then pointed to the starting line. Natasha couldn’t make out what was being said but she felt herself frown as Bucky leaned forward, whispered softly back to the blonde and then hopped into his car. Money was exchanged to the bald headed man in a big T-shirt, and a scantily clad teen girl stood in the middle of the clearing road. 

The blonde looked up and to the side, right into the shadows where Natasha was hiding on the second story of the parking garage. Bright eyes narrowed and she kept her gaze right on the hidden redhead for long moments, ignoring start of the race. “We might have a problem.” Nat murmured as she started her bike and left her hiding space. She’d been spotted so easily.


	17. Chapter 17

16  
   
It’s been nearly a month since Nika opened her garage and eventually her home to the two men. They spent nearly every day and night there anyways. Bucky would wake up on the couch and Sam would have passed out on the bench seat of a van set up in the living room as another couch. They rarely went to the apartment except to touch base with the team.  
   
Bucky crosses his arms and leans back in the office chair, watching the sun set out the window through the blinds. His mind a mixing pot of thoughts of her. Her blonde hair and curving figure. Bent over the engine of her car, laughing over a grill, wind blowing her hair as they played volleyball on the beach. The way her hair flew and the life in her eyes danced as she raced.   
   
“Buck?”  
   
“Huh? Yeah Steve?” Steve’s disgruntled expression was clear on the computer screen. He must have zoned out while Steve was talking.   
   
“Are you alright Buck?” Bucky nods and pulls out his phone as it chirps, signaling an incoming text.   
   
Biting the inside of his cheek Bucky frowns and furiously types back. “Hey Steve I gotta go, I’ll get back to ya later.” Bucky ends the video chat and hits the call button on his phone.   
   
“Hey tall, dark and broody.” Her voice sing songs over the line and Bucky grins as he races down the walk and slips into his car. “I see you got my text.” He can HEAR her grin.   
   
“I did.” He nearly growls and puts the phone on speaker and into the cubby on the dash as he shifts going down the street. “You home alone?”  
   
“Possibly....” Bucky grins wider.   
   
“Don’t you move a muscle... “ Bucky orders low in his throat.   
   
“Hurry big boy.” He ends the call, flings his phone back down on the passenger seat and books it to the beach residences.   
   
The picture she’d sent had his blood pumping. Reclined in the hood of her Dodge, lacy red bra peeking from a ripped white tank top and shorts so small they were basically panties. He pushed his car, barely avoiding a cop and finally his tires slid on sandy gravel as he parked outside the garage. He’s barely got time to pocket his keys before she’s on him, leaping onto his broad frame and wrapping her legs around his hips.   
   
“¿qué te tomó tanto tiempo?” (What took you so long) She whispered into his neck as he continued walking. Carrying her easily up the steps and into the empty apartment on the second floor. His hands gripping and squeezing over her thighs and ass as he kicked her bedroom door shut with his boot.   
   
“Estoy aquí ¿no?” (I’m here aren’t i?) He growled as he kicked his boots off, not caring if he stumbled a bit or that she giggled as he dropped her to her bed. Quickly crawling over her to kiss over her neck. Grinning down at her as he peels off her ripped tank top. Not even thinking about her laptop being open or the tiny white light for the camera came on remotely in the compound as Tony hacked into it.   
   
“That’s way more of Tin Can’s ass then I ever wanted to see...” Tony gagged and held a hand over his eyes. Wanda tilted her head to the side and watched on curiously before Steve covered her eyes and turned her around, his hand frantically trying to turn down the sound coming from the speakers.   
   
——  
   
Sam traced the line of her shoulder to her neck and back, slow little touches that had her smiling against his chest where she lay sprawled. The blue green in her hair bright against his dark skin and he liked the mesh of light and dark. His fingers moved to thread through her hair and gently coax her head up so he could rest his lips over her temple.   
   
“You need to leave?” Sam shook his head in answer and pulls Irene closer under the sheets, their skin chilled from the air conditioning unit thrumming just a few feet away. It’s cold air flowing right against them on the bed in her room.   
   
Irene turned more to lay her chin on his chest and look up at him through brown and blue hair. “I’m glad I have met you.” She surges forward before he can respond and seals her lips to his own, Sam’s hand cupping the back of her head as he rolls them over.   
   
—-  
   
“Why do you keep this on?” Nika tugged on the neck of his thin shirt, the long sleeves covering his left arm and glove while the right was rolled up. He sighed and leans his forehead on her chest for a moment.   
   
“Got an ex’s name on your arm?” She teased and when he didn’t smile back her lips turned into a frown. “James?”  
   
He leans back, moving to sit against the headboard and scrubbed his right hand over his face. “I’ve got a ... prosthetic arm...”  
   
Nika climbs to sit across from him, the sheets falling some from her bare form. “Can I see?”  
   
Bucky takes a deep breath, wondering how he was going to explain his arm. What lies he could web together with thin string that would somehow stay strong. Nika wasn’t a fool, but she was trusting to a fault to those around her.   
   
“I was in the army...” he starts off, keeping it less detailed than he needs. Nika reaches up to clasp her hand over her mouth when he explains about his imprisonment, experimentation and loss of his arm, his lost memories and then regaining them. Feeling lost and like he couldn’t belong anywhere.   
   
When he sighs and reaches out, he holds his arm out for her to peel back the sleeve off on her own. She watches and finally realizes something, it’s utterly still. A stillness that no living thing has. With slow movements Nika reaches out to gently push back the sleeve, once it’s past his wrist and the glove no longer covers what should be skin beneath, she gasps.   
   
A soft sting of curses leaves her lips so quickly he can’t really keep up with her as she continues to peel the sleeve back and her fingers trace over the solid plates of his cybernetic arm. Flinging herself onto his chest she wraps both arms around his left and holds it tight to her chest. 


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now the fun starts

17  
   
Somethings up. Bucky watches her from his car at the races tonight. She’s not smiling like usual, it’s forced. She keeps whispering to Irene and Sean. Nikki, the other girl, is nowhere to be seen. She hadn’t been there at all that night and was out of character for the self proclaimed, her words not his, race slut. Curious and more than a little worried, Bucky stood from his car, nodded for Sam to stay there while he started over to Nika.   
   
Before he got through the thick crowds he stopped, eyes narrowed as her Dodge sped away from the races. Irene and Sean no longer in view and their tail lights blinking out of sight. He turned and darted through the crowd, using his strength to push people out of his way. “Sam! Code blue.” Bucky had grabbed Sam’s shoulder and whisper-yelled into the man’s ear.   
   
By the time they got through the crowds and onto the night streets, all three of the cars were long gone. Bucky slapped the dash of his car in frustration, picking up his phone and dialing Nika’s number. When it goes straight to voicemail on the first ring, he’s trying extremely hard not to crush the device in his hands.   
   
But then she’s calling him, “Where are you?” He basically growls, barely containing his worry.   
   
“Easy tiger, something came up. I’ll be back by morning.” Her voice sounded confident and he wished he’d listened to Steve and put a damn tracker in her car now. What the fuck could she be doing with her team?  
   
“Sure you’re alright?” His voice is calmer now as he continues to drive aimlessly through the streets, back towards the races. Sam’s car suddenly appears beside his own and kept pace as they made their way through traffic.   
   
“Aye, Papi. I’m fine.” There was some static and some words hushed in Ukrainian. “I gotta go.” She hangs up suddenly and when Bucky tries to call back immediately after, its straight to voicemail. She’d turned her phone off.   
   
Parking at an all-night diner, he stood from his car and leaned on the hood. Sam standing from his own car and rose an eyebrow at him. “Somethings up.” Bucky nodded to Sam.   
   
“Think we should call it in?” Bucky closed his eyes. He doesn’t want to. He didn’t want to call in the rest of the team. There was something in his gut, he wanted to stay like this. In this setting, with these people and these cars. Sam closed his eyes and then looked up at the sky. He felt the same.   
   
“No, we wait until morning when they’re back. If we interfere now we’ve lost all their trust.” It wasn’t just that, he just didn’t know what it was.   
   
——  
   
Three cars, small black Honda civics with blue undercarriage lights. Speeding down a lone desolate highway, a mile and a half behind a semi-truck. Static cackled and Nika held up the receiver to her walkie talky. “Alright guys, we hit it hard and fast. This is enough payday to last us awhile.” Confirmations came through the line and Nika attached the set back to her vest. A Kevlar vest, she learned her lesson the last time things went bad, they won’t go bad again.   
   
Irene pulled her hair back into a bun and then slipped a motorcycle helmet onto her head to hide her features as well as protect her in case she should fall. Hopefully, she wouldn’t. “Ready blue?” Irene nods and pops open the sunroof of the civic as they gain and then pull in front of the semi-truck. The truck swerved as it noticed the black car but then a whistle rang out and a hook had pierced the windshield, ripping it back from the truck's cab.   
   
Nika kept it steady as Irene fired the gun once more, this time tethering herself to the inside of the truck while the driver started to swerve to try and displace her. “Now!” Nika ordered and Irene leaped off the hood of the car, landing on the hood of the truck. Finding her footing she ducked as a shot rang out, twisting her body she kicked it from the driver's hands. Another kick and the driver was out cold, Nika hurries to pull him from the seat and took over the controls.   
   
“I got it!” Nika sighed in relief and then called everyone back. Sean took the unconscious driver to a bus stop, dropping him off on the bench before he woke up. Nikki led the truck to a hiding spot, a warehouse they owned through a fake name, and quickly closed the doors behind the truck.   
   
Stepping from the car, Nika pulled off the safety vest she was wearing and ran to Irene as she stumbled from the cab of the truck. “Blue??” Irene gripped her thigh and winced, there was blood on her hands. “Fuck! Nikki! Get the kit!”   
   
Nika half carried Irene to a metal table, her arm flinging down the maps and papers from it as she helped Irene up onto it. Nikki set down the black duffle bag at Nika’s side and then moved over to Irene’s other side to let the blonde work. She knew to stay out of the way. Nika grabbed scissors and cut open the pants leg to Irene’s thigh. Hissing softly Irene grabbed Nikki’s hand.   
   
“It went clean through, not deep at all,” Nika assured the blue haired woman as she started to clean and then stitch the wound.   
   
“How will I hide this?” Irene hissed through clenched teeth as Nika stitched her skin up. Nika wasn’t the gentlest nurse but her stitching was perfect every time. All of them at one point or another had been shot or hurt, Nika using skills no one knew where she learned.   
   
Nika sighs, spraying an antiseptic over the wound. After a few moments, a film like sheen hardened over the wound, protecting it from any infection as she started to wrap gauze around Irene’s thigh. “Dom...” Nika sighed again, closing her eyes before looking back at her team. They only called her that when they were very serious, or scared. She didn’t like it, it reminded her too much of her past.   
   
Nika tapped Irene’s hip signaling she could get up, she started to pack away the kit back into the small duffle. “I’ll tel them, in the morning.” Nikki and Irene nodded, the brunette helping the blue-haired woman down and testing her leg.   
   
She moved to the truck and started to open the back door, climbing up as it folded upwards. Crowbar in hand, Nika pried one of the crates top, the wood splintering and falling to the ground. The apple logo clear on the boxes but something didn’t look right. “What the fuck is this?” She murmured and opened one of the phone boxes.   
   
A thick blue powder, sealed tightly inside of nearly hard plastic bag fell from the rectangle box into her hand. This wasn’t a truck full of phones. This was a drug.  
   
“Fuck...” Nikki’s climbed up herself and opened another phone box, examining the blue bag until realization seemed to dawn and she gently put it back down.   
   
“Umm Nika... what the hell did we steal?” She shook her head and placed the bag back down. Chewing her lip she took one of the bags and stashed it into her jacket pocket.   
   
“Ladies... whatever this is… someone’s gonna want it back.” Irene and Nikki shared a glance, Nika was too calm. They’d just accidentally stolen a truckload of some kind of drug they’d never seen before, and she was starting to grin. “And we’re gonna sell it back to them.”


	19. Chapter 19

18  
   
The suns peeking on the horizon when the sound of engines comes back to the beach house. Irene barely hides her limp but Sam can see it and he runs over to her out of worry. Nikki slumped on the couch next to Sean who was nursing a cup of coffee, the teen handed it over to the brunette. Bucky stood with arms crossed in the middle of the living room, but looking around, it was off.   
   
He’s used to being in some form of control, one way to another. People looking to him for guidance, like the younger Avengers and even some of his teammates. But here, he was the bystander. He was the one brought in at the last moment. Nika was the one all the others were looking to, she was the alpha in this pack, and Bucky needed to chill the fuck out.   
   
He was going to rage at her, tell her off for going on her own and doing god knows what. But seeing the way she was standing now, hands on hips and slightly relaxed. Her chin tilted back a bit as she rose an eyebrow from his own form, demanding attention when it wouldn’t be given to him. Nika commanded her team like a general commanded his troops. And Bucky wasn’t in that circle yet.   
   
“What happened?” Bucky asked softly, uncrossing his arms as Sam helped Irene sit on a comfy chair. Her pants cut open and bloody, gauze over her skin. Clearly a gunshot wound.   
   
The three were silent, Irene Sean and Nikki didn’t even flinch or twitch as Bucky met their eyes around the room. Unwavering to Nika. Waiting for a signal to tell them what to do.   
   
Nika turned and motioned for him to follow her as she went back down to the garage. Her hands hitting the buttons to close all the doors and then lock them as she went. She even went so far as to lock the metal door to the side. When she was sure everything was locked tight she leaned her hip on the metal workbench. Bucky watched her for a moment.   
   
“Where’d you go?” Nika sighs softly through her nose, moves to lay her hands over the table before her. A small block engine slowly being rebuilt on the surface.   
   
“A job.” She doesn’t look up.  
   
“A job?”   
   
“Family was running low, not enough races.” Bucky raised a brow at her. Was she talking about money? She and her team could make at least ten thousand every couple of weeks. “You think building these cars is free? This house?”  
   
“What kind of job?” She still doesn’t look up but she moves over to the workbench, crouches down and unlocks a metal cabinet. In her hands is a brand new Apple iPhone in the box, not even released yet, and she sets it down on the table in front of him.   
   
“This. We grab the truck, distribute the product and make the money.” Now she looks up and he sees something in her eyes that’s hardened her gaze.   
   
“Irene got hurt.” She nods.   
   
“Stray shot got her leg, we can’t tell which trucks have guns or not. It’s a gamble.”  
   
“I’m guessing this ain’t the first time you’ve all been shot at?” Again she shakes her head. “What went wrong this time?”  
   
Taking a deep breath Nika stands straight and crosses her arms, a hip piped out some. “It was usual, found the truck, dropped the driver, hid the stash...” her gaze narrowed at the table and she reached into her pocket.   
   
“Except this wasn’t phones in the back. It was this.” She sets a plastic bag on the table, and Bucky’s entire back goes stiff.   
   
It’s maybe the color, the familiar blue that looks almost like stardust. Or the shape of the bag maybe, perfectly set in the hand. He’s got an idea of what’s in that bag, and he prays to every god that he’s wrong. “The whole truck?” She nods.  
   
“I’ve never seen this before, nowhere I’ve been had this.” She taps the bag with a fingertip. “What I do know, is we either got the wrong truck, or we stumbled on something that hasn’t even hit the market yet.”  
   
Bucky looks up at the change of her voice, sees the grin wanting to split her lips. And for a moment, he thinks she’s batshit crazy. “We’re gonna find who we stole it from... and they’re gonna buy this shit back.” 


	20. Chapter 20

19  
   
Nika stares at the blue powder in the baggie. She’s asked everyone she could think of. All the dealers in the city she knew and a couple she didn’t, anything about anything new. She didn’t ask about blue powder or phones, just if there was anything about to come out. Anything. And there was nothing. Nobody knew anything.   
   
Frustrated she locks the bag back up inside the cabinet in the garage. Inside another locked toolbox and under the movable tray. The truck was locked up tight and no one knew where to find their hideout. But she felt it, like a storm on the sea. Whoever hadn’t got their shipment would be looking. She needed to find them before they found her.   
   
Nerves were getting the better of her. She’s stolen gas, taken down a few crime lords down in Spain and Cuba. But this felt different, it felt bigger. She felt like she’d bitten off more than she could chew. But pride got to her and she wouldn’t back down. She and her team would make it out of this, she was a Toretto. As much as she detested her familial name she still had the blood of one. And Toretto’s don’t give up. 

Bucky’s hands slipped around her waist, they were overlooking the beach as the sun set on the horizon. His lips found her hairline and stayed there for a moment. It felt good, being wrapped in strong arms when she felt like everything was falling apart. She needed his strength behind her, it gave her someone to lean on. Irene was amazing but there was something about a man that made a woman feel safe. She hadn’t felt like that since childhood.

“I need to know something, James.” He stays at her back, his arms growing tighter. “I live my life a quarter mile at a time, James. We could be here a year or be gone tomorrow morning.” 

She turns some in his arms, twisting to face him and leaning her hands on the railing while Bucky gripped it behind her, caging her in his arms. “Nothing matters to me. Not the money, not the crowds, not the bills that got to be paid. Nothing but my family, and the feeling I get when I cross that finish line.” 

“I...” She stops and Bucky can see the vulnerability in her eyes. Her walls were all down, at this moment he saw her. “I love you, James. I do.” She reaches up and touches his jaw, gently running her thumb under his eye. 

“I need to know James. I need to know now. Are you my ride or die? Are you going to stick with me? If you’re not, if you’re just here for a while, you need to leave. Leave now because I need you.” Blinking for a moment Bucky leaned into her touch before turning and kissing her lips gently. 

“I ain’t going anywhere.” 


	21. Chapter 21

20  
   
“What the hell?!” Nika shouted out in Spanish as she stared at her busted tire. It had blown out of nowhere, the wheel now bent to shreds. She was lucky the ditches were full of sands from the beach, otherwise, she would have flipped and gotten hurt. Her car seemed fine, it better be, it was her most prized possession   
   
A deep sigh escaped her nose and she uncrossed her arms to pull her phone from the pocket of her shorts. Brow furrowing, no cell service. Which is weird, because the city is just another mile or two down the highway. Tossing the phone into the open window she crouches to examine the busted tire of her ditched car. Fingers and eyes trying to find where the rubber had split or why. It was a new set, it shouldn’t have done that.   
   
Tires on gravel got her attention as a truck came up to the shoulder, she stood and walked over closer. The window of the truck rolled down, “You alright there?” A man asks from the lowered window  
   
“Yeah, busted a tire. I got a tow comin’.” She didn’t like the vibe this guy and his driver was giving her, a tingle went up her spine.   
   
“You sure you got someone comin’?” His voice sounded off, lips sneering at her. Almost laughing.   
   
Her body reacting more on instinct before she’d even registered the gun now swinging from inside the truck window. Dodging to the side she doesn’t miss the sharp stab in her arm, gaze lowering to see the fluffy end of a tranquilizer dart.   
   
Nika made it three steps, hands shakily grasping the door of her car and trying to grab her phone from the seat. But her legs give out and her body hits the thin gravel and sand of the highway shoulder. Vision blurry until it fades to black.   
   
——  
   
“You heard from boss?” Irene leans her hips onto the side of Bucky’s car. Hood open as he checks the fluids and does a systems check on the engine. His eyes narrow.  
   
“I thought she was with you today?” Irene shakes her head.   
   
“She went for a drive this morning, testing out her new shocks and suspension.” Bucky stood from his car, movements quick as he threw tools back in boxes and slammed the hood down. It was two in the afternoon.   
   
“Get in.” Bucky all but growled and Irene didn’t question it, her seatbelt barely hooked as his tires marked the paved floor of the garage as he peeled out. Sand and dirt flying as they tried to find Nika or her car.   
   
They drove through the main streets of L.A. and then down towards the beach front. Nika favored a curving back road because of its seclusion and no cops patrolled it. Irene gasped the moment Bucky’s foot punched the gas pedal of his car. Nika’s familiar black Dodge sat crooked on the ditch, a tire blown out, and no sign of the blonde.   
   
“Nika?!” Bucky sprang from his car before the dust settled, his eyes taking in every detail. The marks on the road, the way the car was nearly unharmed, the blown tire that shouldn’t have blown. Eyes narrowed, big body crouching down beside the busted rubber and wire. He’d seen this before, he's done this himself before. Shot out the tire of a vehicle at just the right angle and time, causing the car to veer off instead of flipping and killing its passengers.   
   
“James...” Irene leaned into the open window of the car and she was holding Nika’s phone. The device was crushed like it had meet the business end of someone’s heavy boot and then thrown back into the car.   
   
Irene was already on her phone, practically screeching orders in broken English as she told Sean to get his ass out here with the trailer. Find Nikki and Sam, then call Hector and see if he’s seen Nika. Bucky stayed crouched by the crash site, scanning over anything he could have missed. But that was it, there were no second set of tracks telling that someone had scurried off with her. Of course, if she was unconscious and no one was around, they wouldn’t need to speed off.   
   
Bucky’s eyes darkened and his posture changed. Irene found herself taking a half step back as somebody else stood from where James had been kneeling. Back straight, shoulders square. A darkness in his eyes that suggested pain, for whoever had done him wrong. Irene’s been around the world, she’s fought hand to hand with men twice her size and still come out on top. She’s faced guns in her face and threats to her life. But seeing James now, with the same face and smile that could light up a room, darken and turn into a snarled grin. She felt her back muscles tighten as if to flee from this man she now considered a friend.   
   
Bucky’s hand reaches into his pocket, blindly calling a number and as he held the receiver up to his ear he kept staring at the car in the ditch. “Irene?” She looks up at him. “You know if she’s got that bag on her?” Irene’s eyes widen and she shakes her head.   
   
“She not keep it with her. Locked up.” Bucky turned to her, phone still to his ear.   
   
“I need to look at that truck.” She pursed her lips but nodded. With Nika gone, she had to call the shots. It had happened once before, and she detested the feeling of everything on her shoulders. She wasn’t meant to lead, but to follow.   
   
“Buck? What’s wrong, this is the emergency line...”   
   
“Get down here, wear civvies, don’t make a scene.” He breathes a deep sigh through his nose. “She’s been taken.” Bucky ended the call, crossed his arms and stood to wait on Sean and Steve to show up. In the back of his mind, he had money on the kid, the teen could drive with a loaded trailer faster than a racer.   
   
He knew exactly who had taken her, he just wished he was wrong. 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are love.
> 
> Comments are life.


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